The Dog that lost it’s wag

The dog that lost it’s wag

Tess arrived as a small bundle of fur at Billy’s house on a Monday. Billy’s mum and Dad had always said that they would not have a dog.
“They take too much looking after!” Billy’s dad would say whenever the subject came up. Of course, they changed their minds when they met Jess.
Jess belonged to one of Billy’s Mum’s friends and was a very special dog. Both Billy’s Mum and Dad were secret admirers of Jess.
“Please can we have a dog Dad!” Billy would plead, “I’ll look after it and take it walks.”
Well of course, it was not long after Billy’s parents found out about Jess having pups that they decided. He could.
They picked the black and white puppy, out of the litter, and it was named Tess. It would prove to be a remarkable dog, that the family would take to their hearts and remember.
Billy was true to his word, and took Tess for lots of walks. He and Tess were the best of friends; they played together all through the summer, wherever Billy was, you could be sure that Tess was not far behind. They played in the garden, and they played in Billy’s room, they even played in the field at the back of the house when Billy’s mother allowed them. For a while, it seemed that the summer would never end. The two of them were so happy. Billy always had the biggest smile on his face and sometimes Tess wagged her tail so hard it looked like it would be wagged right off!
One day towards the end of the summer, the time came for Billy to go to school. The holidays had come to an end and Billy’s mother had got a special uniform for him to wear and prepared a lunch for him in a special box. He was full of excitement. He was so exited he almost forgot to say goodbye to Tess as his mother hurried him out of the door to start the journey to school.
“Goodbye Tess” he called as a puzzled Tess looked on with her head tilted to one side. She raced to the window just in time to see Billy and his mother driving off up the road, she was very sad; she was too young to understand that Billy had to go to school.
For a while, Tess waited at the door for Billy to return, and then she started to play to take her mind off her sadness. She played in Billy’s bedroom but it was not the same without Billy so she walked back to the front door to wait again. After a while, she found a very chewy pair of slippers that helped her forget all about Billy. She chewed and she chewed, they were so good.
As she chewed, the hours passed and Billy’s father returned from work for his lunch, imagine his horror to find his lovely slippers all chewed up.
“You naughty dog” he shouted at Tess, who was very frightened. She ran and hid behind the sofa until Billy’s father shouted to her and let her into the garden.
“You can stay out here for a while to keep you out of trouble” he said as he closed the door.
Tess had never been in the garden on her own before, she was very sad, her friend Billy had gone away and now she was being thrown out into the garden!
By now Tess felt very unwanted, she decided that the only thing she could do was to find a new life for herself, and after casting a backward glance at the house where she had been so happy, she walked through the garden and into the field where she and Billy had played so often during the summer.
In no time at all she had walked right through the field to the other side, occasionally looking back until the house was a very small speck in the distance. At the end of the field Tess found herself in a dark wood, she looked around nervously as she hurried through. After what seemed like an age, she finally found her way through and soon found herself beside a large pond. However, when she bent down to drink some water from the pond, she noticed something very strange about her reflection in the water, her wag; her wag that she had all summer had gone her lovely wag that made Billy laugh had gone! She looked around the pond for it but could not find it anywhere, she asked a passing rabbit if he had seen a wag, but he was too busy.
“Ask the fox said the rabbit, he’ll be along in a minute, yes ask the fox.”
Sure enough a few minutes later the fox came racing through the wood.
“Have you seen my wag?” said Tess to the fox.
“No, sorry” said the fox.” Have you seen the rabbit?”
“Well the rabbit ran through a while ago, but he’ll be far away by now,” said Tess
“Then I’m going home,” said the fox as he turned back into the darkness of the wood, I am very tired, you might try the owl, he might know where your wag is.
“But where can I find the owl?” shouted Tess after the fox.
“Oh just look up” said the fox, “just look up!”
As the fox’s bushy tail disappeared amongst the trees, Tess looked above her head and sure enough sitting high in the tree sat the wise old owl.
“Hello” called Tess I’m sorry to disturb you but I’m looking for my wag and the fox said you might be able to help me.”
“But how did you come to lose it?” said the owl to Tess. It was not long before Tess had told the owl all about her trouble, and why she had decided to leave her home. The owl thought for a while until finally he said to Tess.
“Follow your foot steps, keep to your path at all cost,
And there you will find the lovely wag that you lost.”
Tess thanked the owl, and carefully walked back through the wood taking extra care to keep to the path she had used on her way through before. All the time she looked to the ground, expecting to find her wag at any minute. Before long she had got all the way through and arrived at the field, where she had played with Billy during the summer. However, what could she hear? Someone was calling her name.
“Tess, Tess.”
Tess looked towards the house and whom did she see but Billy at the other end of the field, he was calling her name very loud. She was so surprised and full of happiness, she ran as fast as she could towards Billy who soon saw her running at full speed towards him. But better than that Tess could feel something very familiar happening to her, although she couldn’t see it in her reflection, she could certainly feel her wag, her wag had returned, and the closer she got to Billy the faster it got.
Tess and Billy were soon reunited, and safely back in the house, even Billy’s father was pleased to see her, and it wasn’t long before she learnt that Billy got home from school at 4.o clock and then they could play until bedtime. Nevertheless, she still looked forward to the summer, when she knew they could play all day.